DID YOU KNOW ? Greta Garbo was a staunch defender of 35 hours

By listening to the story dedicated to Greta Garbo you may have wanted to know more about the personality of the actress. In this bonus episode of "At the heart of history", the story specialist Jean des Cars explains to you which woman was Greta Garbo behind the scenes.

Do you know that Greta Garbo had managed to obtain concessions in Hollywood that no other world-renowned actress had obtained before her? These were not whims but requirements. On a film, she worked from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Even if a scene was not finished, we put it off until the next day. The star believed that her eight hours of work were her maximum and she wanted to give the best of herself. It was just professionalism.

All of her directors bent over it, enjoying seeing her arrive at 9 a.m. sharp, dressed and made up, ready to shoot. On set, she was adored by technicians. She was a good comrade. At lunchtime, instead of isolating herself in her dressing room, she stayed on the set with the team and contented herself with the sandwich she had brought herself.

A woman of heart

This woman with the reputation of cold, haughty and inaccessible actress fabricated by the studio, was, in reality, a woman of heart. She has shown it several times. First, on the set of Like You Want Me , her partner was Erich von Stroheim. The studio was wary of this brilliant but complicated actor-director. However, before the shooting, he had fallen from a horse and suffered from a hip. To avoid putting him in a delicate position, for the first time in his life, Greta Garbo invented a migraine. She thus delayed the shooting, giving her partner time to recover.

She behaved the same way with John Gilbert. They had formed a dream couple in several silent films. If Garbo had succeeded in speaking, this had not been the case for John Gilbert. Her career had been brutally shattered. During the shooting of her most emblematic film La Reine Christine, after challenging Laurence Olivier, with whom she did not get along, Greta Garbo had him replaced by John Gilbert to give her a new chance. He had shared his life for a while but it didn't last. "I distrust myself and welcome tributes only with caution. I try to keep myself from the dizziness of passion, because I believe that a woman in love does no more good and that I think above all of my work, which I place higher than anything in my mind. " Greta Garbo's private life was largely behind her career. 

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"At the heart of history" is a Europe 1 Studio podcast

Author and presentation: Jean des Cars 

Project manager: Adèle Ponticelli

Realization: Guillaume Vasseau

Diffusion and edition: Clémence Olivier

Graphics: Europe 1 Studio